The Greiner Report by Sen. Sandra Greiner

Session report for week nine.

Much of the Legislature?s time this week has been spent debating bills that have been voted out of committee. The Senate has been concentrating on getting the Senate files sent over to the House, so they can be considered in House committee in order to make it through the second Funnel process.

One of the bills we approved on the floor this week was SF 2257 which ?tweaked? Iowa?s existing law requiring motorists to move over for stalled or stopped vehicles. I wrote about this proposal in an earlier newsletter, but I thought it was important to mention that the legislation has passed the Senate. This bill requires motorists to reduce their speed to at least 10 miles per hour below the posted speed if they are unable to move over due to oncoming traffic.

Another bill creates a criminal offense for solicitation to commit murder. Hiring someone to commit a murder will become a class C felony if the House of Representatives approves Senate File 2296. A class C felony is punishable with confinement of no more than 10 years and a fine of at least $1,000, but not more than $10,000.

But as work in the Iowa Senate rolls into the ninth week of the 2012 legislative session, one thing is becoming more and more clear: The majority in the Senate are not interested in passing meaningful legislation that puts Iowans back to work, helps our students compete at a global level or provide meaningful property tax relief for Iowa property owners.

Iowa Auditor David Vaudt released a report in August of 2011 noting that 80 percent of school districts using the Iowa Early Intervention Block Grant Program, administered by the Iowa Department of Education, misused, didn?t account for or didn?t use the funds at all. This document should not be ignored. The $30 million attached to this legislation could be spent in other useful and meaningful ways in our schools. When Senate Republicans attempted to address the abuse of funds through amendments proposing accountability, however, the presiding officer ruled our common-sense amendment ?non-germane.?

Very telling of the frivolous mindset in the Iowa Senate is a noise bill passed out of the Senate Transportation Committee. SF 2256 regulates motor vehicle muffler noise to 95 decibels and requires law enforcement officers and the Iowa Department of Transportation to purchase and implement noise testing devices for roadside use. Currently, law enforcement officers have discretion as to what constitutes ?loud? and ?too loud.? Taking that discretion away and forcing them to test vehicles with yet-to-be-determined equipment is quite a stretch. Small communities with noise ordinances and limited resources would also be required to adopt and implement the noise testing equipment. This is growing government at its finest.

Yet another example of wasted time and energy in the Iowa Senate is the passage of SF 2113 requiring deer hunters to affix a weather resistant identification tag to their deer stand which plainly shows their name, hunting license number and address. Originally, Democrats said this bill was an effort to deter poachers. Instead, passing this legislation makes it easier for rogue and disingenuous hunters to steal other hunters? identities. Poaching isn?t even addressed and those sneaking onto someone?s land to hunt will not be deterred.

As the Legislature comes closer and closer to the 100th day marking the end of the session, it is becoming clear that important issues such as creating jobs, reforming Iowa?s property tax structure and reforming the state?s education system are not top priorities for the Majority in the Senate. Election year timidity is beginning to show as we move closer to November and continue to avoid legislation of real substance.

(Sandra Greiner represents Senate District 45. She writes a weekly column during the legislative session and can be reached by email at sandra.greiner@legis.iowa.gov. Mail addressed to Greiner can be sent to Iowa Senate, State Capitol, Des Moines 50319.)